Frank Spotnitz
Chief Executive Officer
Frank is an award-winning writer and producer with over 25 years’ experience in television. Since founding Big Light in 2013, Frank has created and executive produced series including the Emmy award-winning The Man in the High Castle, Medici: The Magnificent, Medici: Masters of Florence, Ransom and The Indian Detective. His many previous credits include Millennium, The Lone Gunmen, Night Stalker, Hunted and Strike Back: Project Dawn. Frank was a writer and Executive Producer of The X-Files television series and both feature films. He shares three Golden Globes for Best Dramatic Series and a Peabody Award for his work on The X-Files, and was Emmy-nominated both for writing and for Outstanding Drama Series.
Chris Sutherland
Chief Operating Officer
Chris Sutherland joined Big Light Productions in September 2020 as Chief Operating Officer, overseeing the company’s operations, strategic partnerships, and project financing.
Chris has 20 years’ production experience with a deep understanding of the global TV and entertainment industries. Prior to Big Light, Chris was Commercial Investment Director at The Ingenious Group, where he led the TV division which backed dramas including White House Farm (ITV), Britannia (Sky), Beecham House (ITV), Black Summer (Netflix) and Marcella (ITV). Before that, he spent 5 years at Motion Content Group rising to become Head of Programmes and Production, overseeing the UK’s content investment strategy and production management across a portfolio of content including Love Island (ITV), The Circle (C4/Netflix) and Wild Things (Sky). Chris has also held senior production roles at Zodiak Media Group, the BBC and Fremantle, where a two-year stint managing Grand Designs resulted in him developing an unhealthy obsession with architectural floorplans.
Adrian Banyard
Senior Development Producer
Adrian has more than 25 years’ experience as a Script Executive, Development Producer and Script Editor. He’s previously worked for indies such as STV Productions, Ecosse Films, Company Pictures and Zeppotron. Credits include The Victim, starring Kelly MacDonald and John Hannah, the first season of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror, The Poison Tree, Wild At Heart, Mistresses, Cape Wrath, In Deep, Peak Practice and three seasons of Monarch Of The Glen. While at Big Light, he has been Co-Producer on the third season of Ransom and most recently Script Producer on the second season of Devils.
Avi Quijada
Digital Content Producer
Avi is an LA-based Writer-Producer. A Venezuelan native, she graduated from the School of Social Communications UCAB Caracas and holds a Masters in Producing from the American Film Institute. Avi has worked on TV and film productions in Venezuela, Panama, Europe, the US and Canada for Canal Uno/Unolink, HBO, SYFY/NBC Universal, Awesomeness TV, CBS and Global TV. She worked closely with 20th Century Fox and 1013 Productions in promoting The X-Files franchise. Her work has been recognised by the DGA and Tribeca. Avi is currently on the Producing Faculty at the AFI Conservatory.
Will Roach
Development Editor
Will began his career working in unscripted television in Glasgow and Bristol. He then moved into scripted drama when he joined the BBC’s long-running medical drama Holby City as a Researcher. He soon progressed to Storyliner and then on to his final role as Script Editor, where he worked on a BAFTA nominated episode, as well as the highly acclaimed final ever episodes. Following Holby, Will returned to his native Scotland to join River City as a Story Editor, where he storylined a year’s worth of episodes before joining the development team at Big Light.
Zerana Patel
Management Accountant
Zerana is responsible for the day-to-day accounting and finances of the company. Prior to Big Light, Zerana gained valuable experience from McLaren Racing, where she was involved in transactional accounting in the Race Team. Following that, Zerana worked at Grant Thornton, with chief responsibility for debtors’ management in Europe, Africa and CIS countries. Zerana holds a degree in Nutrition from Kings College London and has qualified as a chartered accountant.
Holly-Mae Gibson
Assistant Development Editor
Holly-Mae’s initial foray into television began with a Commissioning Apprenticeship at ITV, after which she became a freelance script reader for several award-winning production companies including Big Light Productions. She then went on to build a diverse industry background, firstly within production teams for series including Britannia (Sky/Vertigo) and Murder in Provence (ITV/Monumental), before going on to provide development consultancy and script editing services for the female-led production company Untamed Stories and highly acclaimed The Writers Lab Europe.